Comcast Corp.’s share price down, the $45-billion merger with Time Warner Cable once again delayed

The proposed $45-billion merger of Comcast Corp. with Time Warner Cable Inc. has once again been delayed. This time the postponement of the deal occurred, as Time Warner Cable failed to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the required documents on time.

A spokesperson of Comcast, Sena Fitzmaurice, said in an e-mailed comment on the matter, cited by Bloomberg, that the limited pause “allows FCC staff to review the new materials, and we remain on track for the transaction review to be concluded early in 2015”.

The informal deadline to complete consideration of the merger between the two U.S.-based companies was pushed back by regulatory authorities by three weeks. As the Federal Communications Commission revealed in a notice published on its website today, Time Warner Cable is expected to produce 31 000 documents to U.S. officials, who are to review them.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Chief of the Federal Communications Commission, William Lake, revealed in a letter to the merging parties that Time Warner Cable improperly concealed more than 7 000 documents “based on an inappropriate claim of attorney-client privilege”.

The company had been initially advised by Mr. Lake to present the documents by December 30th, but Time Warner Cable said that it would provide them by December 22nd. The privileged documents were presented by the cable operator in the beginning of December.

The company expected to deliver a revised “privilege log” in the middle of January 2015. The merging parties were asked by the Federal Communications Commission to respond to its data request by September 11th.

Bobby Amirshahi, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable, said in an e-mailed statement, cited by Bloomberg: “Today’s delay is a procedural issue, not a substantive one. We already have provided the FCC more than 5 million pages of documents and we will continue to provide the FCC everything that they need.”

Comcast Corp. was down 0.21% to close at $56.93 per share yesterday, marking an year-to-date gain of 14.13%. The company is valued at $147.24 billion. According to CNN Money, the 23 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Comcast have a median target of $65.00, with a high estimate of $72.00 and a low estimate of $45.00. The median estimate represents a +14.18% increase from the last price of $56.93.